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UP-DATE MAGAZINE 
1317 STRATFORD AVE. 
PANAMA Cmr. a 32404 



SHCBT TAKES TOO LATE TO INCLUEE IN UPDATE 

1. This issue was ready for mailing on December 28. Mailing was delayed 
waiting for inputs from S.N.U.G. ("Sinclair North American User Group"). I 
kinda threw a bomb stell to the SNUG Committee, by offering to let SNUG take 
over and publish UPDATE Magazine -a GIFT to become the SNUG publication. More 
than enough cash assets to publish an issue was included in the offer. What 
the heck! I'm retired, dont need extra income, and SNUG needs a leg up. 
UPDATE Magazine is on its feet now and operating in the black. A year 
subscription to a qtality magazine (UPDATE) can be the most tangible benefit to 
offer in a SNUG membership package. So far, SNUG activities and planning have 
been shBky. Now we will see how serious is SNUG about getting some place! I 
believe that they are serious, and that this will represent a jump ahead of 
about a year in the SNUG time table. 

The SNUG goals are excellent. Regretfully, Mel Nathanson is the only 
survivor of the original SNUG Committee that was organized during the Orlando 
Fest in March 1988. Drop-outs from the group threw too much of a burden upon 
one guy. Since then, other volenteers who have staying power and dedication 
have joined in. UPDATE commends Mel Nathanson for hanging in there after being 
abandoned by the others. 

The CATS FEST, to be held in May 1989, will be the appropriate time and 
place to hold an election of SNUG Officers. This FEST promises to be the 
largest assembly of Sinclair Users in one place during 1989. The opportunity 
to put the final touches on the SNUG organization during this FEST must not be 
lost! UPDATE URGES SNUG to OOCHDINATE with CATS and PLAN to HOLD ELECTIONS 
during the FEST. All TSUGS should come READY TO PARTICIPATE. Volenteers for 
SNUG officer positions from within the TSUGS should be nominated for elective 
office, and floor nominations allowed. Lets get this thing going! Another 
release about the CATS FEST will be in the APRIL UPDATE, and hopefully some 
news about SNUG's schedule and planning. 

2. DOMINO CUBE 

Domino Cube is a dealership for the Sinclair Z-88 and its periphreals and 
is owned and operated by Mike Fink, an "old head TS-2068 user. Mike is writing 
a series of additional user manuals for the Z88. The reason for this insertion 
is that page 14 of this issue has a mistake in Mike's Telephone number. I'll 
get it right (below). 

DOMINO CUBE, (Mike Fink) , 355 West 39th St., New York, NY 10018-1401 
Telephone: 212-971-5638 

3. Time Designs Subscribers: Hang in there. TDM is still alive and 
kicking, but Tim has been having problems with the calender. The Sept/Oct 
issue was received on Jan. 4th. Nov/Dec issue is about to be mailed. Playing 
Catsup ain't fun and ole Tim will get back on schedule. DONT ABANDON SHIP! 

4. QUANTUM LEVELS Magazine: The word from Tom Bent is that QL's will 
absorb Syncware News and publish a larger magazine that is dedicated to ALL 
Sinclair Users. This is a good publishing staff and you can look for better 
things to come. 

5. PIPE LINE is a new publication for the Sinclair Z88 users. See article 
in this UPDATE issue. Haven't received the Jan. 89 issue as yet. 



psqft 



6. "QLui" is a dedicated newsletter for Sinclair QL users publisted by 
Bill Fischer, 419 Parkwocd Drive East, Orange Park, FL 32073. Haven't received 
an issue lately, but checking the mail box every day. 

7. UPDATE also has a little Calender problem. Behind about 30 days on 
filling "Issue Disk" orders. Now that the magazine is mailed these orders will 
be filled quickly. December was a blast for Christmas, but a bummer for 
keeping on schedule. 

8. ODMIKO for TS-2068 Disk Drive Systems— "D-Base-68", an "essemble" 
software designed to "take over the TS-2068 and Disk Drive". D-Base-68 
includes multiple data base management, disk management, word processing, desk 
top publishing, inventory management. Mail Merge. For LKDOS, Oliger DOS, 
FD-68. To be released soon. 

9. QL SUPPORT: The best buy since the injuns sold Long Island 
(prounounced "lone-gi-lan) , is the QL CABLE ISSUE DISK.. (Also on MDV CART).. 
See the write up in this issue and in the October 88 issue of UPDATE. 

10. Other EXCELLENI TS-2068 DISK ENSEMBLES: 

For Oliger Disk users: The TS-2068 "HARTUNG Issue Disk" is an ensemble of 
DISK MANAGER programs, the best that I have seen for ANY computer. 

For LKDOS, OLIGER DOS, Aerco FD-68: 

a. The OCTOBER 87/JAN 88 ISSUE DISK- includes "Mail Merge", "Purity", 
"List Looker". These programs create and manage data base listings of all 
types, prints to paper, labels, or envelopes. Absolutely the best program to 
use for managing mailing listsl This issue disk also includes "J-Utils", a 
consolodation of programs and utilities. One of these is "Mixed Math", which 
lets you manipulate Hex, Decimal, Binary. Convert from one number base to 
another, multiply, add, divide, and subtract MIXED number bases. The third 
group of this issue disk are several EXTRA MEMORY management utilities to use 
with DOCK Cartridges. See the "TS-2068 Disk Software Library", page 54. 

b. The SMART TEXT ISSUE DISK: This is the up-graded Smart Text 
Software, the software used for piiblishing UPDATE Magazine. Smart Text is a 
combination DATA BASE, Disk Manager, and Word Processor. The theme is to 
provide ALL ADMINISTRATIVE functions needed for manuscript, letter, and 
addressing operations. Works with all Parallel Centronics interfaces and 
printers. The data manager of Smart Text is integrated with the products of 
the three Data Base programs given in the Oct/Jan Issue disk di scribed in "a" 
above. With Smart Text comes a Tutorial Disk that runs for three hours. Sit 
back and let Smart Text tell you how to operate Smart Text. It's fun to learn 
this way. 

*** C0MIN3 NEXT ISSUE *** 

MORE QL PROGRAMS by Bill Cable and others (including yours truly) 

MCRE TS-2068 Programs and Utilities. "T-BASE-3", a new data base manager 
program for LKDOS, Oliger DOS, FD-68. -Another good LKDOS article by Bob 
Mitchell. Larry Kenny authors some good tips. Syd Wyncoop writes for FD-68. 

IN DEPTH coverage of the Z88 will begin. See you next issue. -BJ 



page 2 



BUDGET CODIbjG SHEET dated 880411 

Expenditures by Category 
Capital: Major items such as furniture, appliances, 
renovations. Others in Misc. 

Clothing: Including accessories: purses, wallets. 

Dental: Do not include costs paid by insurance, etc. 
Insurance premiums in Insurance. 

Electric: Including water heater rental or repair. 

Gas: Including any maintenance. 

Gifts: Including cards, wrapping, charitable 

donations, Christmas cards and wrap. 

Groceries: All food and non-food items (except liquor, 
beer and wine whether purchased at 
supermarkets, drug stores or other grocery 
outlets,and including health care items (but 
not patent medicines). 

Housing: Mortgage or rental costs, home insurance, 
repairs to major appliances (but furnace 
repairs in Gas). 

Insurance: Premiums for home, car, medical, dental, life, 
unemployment and other insurance policies. 

Leisure: Dining out, take-out food, movies, VCR movies, 
movies. Cable TV rental, entertainment 
equipment and entrance fees. 

Liquor: Used at home. 

Medical: Prescriptions drugs (less costs paid by 
insurance); patent medicines, doctor and 
hospital bills (less costs paid by insurance). 

Misc. : General items such as magazines, newspapers, 
stamps, Lucaya fees, small household items 
(apply sales tax rebates here). 

Personal: Magazines, hairdo's, perfume and other 
cosmetics, hobbies (computers, photography, 
sports) . 

Phone: Including purchase of telephones, recorders, 

etc., used with telephone services. 

Prop. Taxes. Realty taxes. 

Transport: Car costs including insurance, parking costs. 



THE APRIL UP-DATE DISK — Printed with pgm "Brief" 

The following programs comprise the BUDGET SOFTWARE by Bob 
Mitchell. 

"BUDGET. Bl" Basic Program: This program is the LOADER and MANA- 
GER for the BUDGET Software. "Menu.Bl" is a secondary DISK 
Mgr Menu that is available from the BUDGET program. 

Three versions of the LOADER are provided, one for LARKEN DOS 
one for OLIGER DOS, and one for the AERCX) FD-68 DOS. 

"budget. BJ" BASIC Program- This is the main BUDGET software, 
and is the BASIC PROGRAM set up and ready to be COMPILED by use 
of the TIMACHItJE COMPILER. 

"spread. BJ" BASIC PROGRAM- This is the Basic program SPREAD 
SHEET set up to be compiled by use of TIMACHINE. When it is 
compiled it, and its data are CALLED by USR call from the 
LOADER program menu as needed for print out of the spread 
sheet data products. 

The LOADER ( "BUDGBT.Bl" ) and the Disk Menu "Menu.Bl" are not 
to be Assembled. BOTH will remain BASIC programs. 



The following programs are the 
budge t.BJ and spread. BJ, and 
the LOADER program's menu. 



ASSEMBLED CODE versions of the 
they are ready to be used by 



"budget. GJ" is the main software ASSEMBLED into Machine Code. 

"spread. GJ" is the pre-ASSEMBLED SPREADSHEET used for print 
products. 

SO, WHAT YOU HAVE, are two sets of programs: 1. The LOADER — 
"BUDGET.Bl" and "Menu.Bl" with two assembled Code programs, 
"budget. GJ" and "spread. GJ", 

2. The same BASIC "BUDGBT.Bl" and "Menu.Bl", with the NON- 
compiled programs, "budget. BJ" and "spread. BJ". 



Other CODE programs are the doc-umentation for Operation and for 
compiling the two BASIC programs with TIMACHINE. Since they are 
already compiled, this will be for educational benefit only. 
Try it, you'll learn a lot about how to use TIMACHINE, and when 
finisted you will want to do a lot of work to speed up many of 
your Basic programs. 

The data files, bujJb.CT, bujJs.CT, help.CT, bujJx.CT, and 
bujJ3.Cr, are all TASWCRD data files. If you have TASWCRD, 
load these files for print out. Otherwise, you can use the 
program on this disk, "MS-TAS" to do the job for you. 

Load "MS-TAS" and enter 33280 as the starting address. Then 
let the program print the data out in 64 column lines. 

The DATA LENGTH for use with these data files and "MS-TAS" 
ares bujJb.Cr=8320 bytes, bujJs.Cr=2048 bytes, help.Cr=3968 
bytes, bujJx.Cr=2944 bytes,bujJx.Cr=2944 bytes, bujJ3.CT=11200 
bytes. All have starting adr of 33280. Refer to this para 

after load' g "MS-T?-<^", 



The April UP-DATE Issue Disk 

The operating theme of the major program BUDGET is to use 
the main menu, which is in BASIC, to select the LOAD or a EMPTY 
or FULL budget program. The options are to START input of data, 
or to LOAD a existing budget program that you have worked on 
previously. While working with the input of data, you may 
discontinue and SAVE. Then later the saved data may be 
retrieved and worked on again by selection at menu. An 
auxiliary Disk Menu is provided for other options. Qie may 
elect to break out of the program an do other functions like 
printing, calculations, etc. Then the program may be re-entered 
by <LOAD Menu.Bl>, 

JLO SAFE V2.52 1988, J. Oliger 

DISK NAME: APRIL UPDATE 
FCMATTED @80 TRAC3(S, 2 SII:E(S) 
CAPACITY: 159 CYLS/795K BYTES 
FREE: 97 CYLS/485K BYTES 



FILENAME TYPE CYLS SIZE START 





BYTES 


1 


1826 


63417 


DOSDEX MGR 


BASIC 


2 


6007 


2 


LOAD 


BASIC 


1 


87 


10 


RflFTIPT Rl 


BASIC 


1 


1289 


60 


Monii Rl 


BASIC 


1 


702 


10 


iNrr.Bi 


BASIC 


1 


583 


9980 




BYTES 




25923 


32000 


spread .GJ 


BYTES 


1 


3904 


58400 


budget. BJ 


BASIC 


5 


24554 


10 


spread. BJ 


BASIC 


1 


2855 


8000 


BRIEF. Bl 


BASIC 


2 


5445 


5 


MS-TAS.Bl 


BASIC 


1 


924 


8000 


LI MCLOAD 


BASIC 


1 


487 


1 


PEEK VARS 


BASIC 


1 


196 




budget. CY 


BYTES 


6 


25923 


32000 


SEARCH 


BASIC 


1 


4978 


1 


FILE DEX 


BASIC 


1 


1163 


1 


MARK-MOVE 


BASIC 


1 


2092 


1 


VERIJDISK 


BASIC 


1 


855 


1 


ChopTn 


BASIC 


2 


7584 


220 


Btls 


BASIC 


3 


14780 


9900 


Mzrt 


BASIC 


2 


7674 


1 


Spell 


BASIC 


2 


7411 


100 


Ohm's Law 


BASIC 


1 


1257 


100 


Multiply 


BASIC 


2 


6038 


10 


Type Style 


BASIC 


1 


2055 


4608 


Piano 


BASIC 


1 


4747 


10 


budge tD 


BYTES 


1 


652 


64716 


bujE.Cl 


BYTES 


4 


17642 


47047 


bujJb.CT 


BYTES 


2 


8320 


33280 


bujJs. CT 


BYTES 


1 


2048 


33280 


Jielp.Cr 


BYTES 


1 


3968 


33280 


bujJS.CT 


BYTES 


3 


11200 


33280 


bujJx.CT 


BYTES 


1 


2944 


33280 



TOTAL FILES: 34 



1 



The DOSDEX series, by Bob Hartung, consists of six Disk 
Management programs that do evert hing that one needs to do to 
manage individual disks or a whole library of disks. These 
programs only work with the OLIGER SAFE system and are given to 
the users of other disk systems to use as foundations to build a 
si mi liar disk management system. When someone does that for 
another disk system, UP-DATE will publish. 

Three utilities not given in the UPDATE magazine pages are: 
INir, BRIEF, and PEEK VARS. INIT is different for each DOS and 
provides a quick initialization of the printer code and 
parameters. BRIEF is a visual and printing introduction to the 
April Issue Diskette and shDuld provide a few tricks of its own 
as to how to use the OPEN# syntax to direct PRINT to paper 
instead of to screen. Also, BRIEF illustrates the use of nested 
counters with print statements to schedule line printing. PEEK 
VARS can be MERGED to any program to investigate the VARS area, 
where VARS starts and ends, and to provide a disassembly of the 
whole vars area of memory. 

Four public domain musical programs, taken from tl">e CATS 
library are thrown in for your pleasure. Three of these were 
modified to continue running to infinity, each selection running 
a second time in a different tempo, then automatically booting 
in the next concerto. Look at the above disk catalog for 
starting line numbers to investigate the methods of linking the 
programs via disk load calls, and for tempo changes. A few 
other Public Donain programs are also included. You will 
recognize one of the authors as a regular writer for UP-DATE 
(George Chambers of Toronto, who has given much to TS 
Computing) . 



Some illustrations of the Budget program print products are 
reduced from full page size and given as follows. The Budget 
program uses two printers for its output products. A selection 
of "Print Spreadsheet" requires a wide page- 8 1/2 X 11" page 
set into the printer sideways, or wide forms in a Centronics 
printer. All otlier print products are to the TS-2040 printer, 
so the TS-2040 must be connected for other print products 
selected within the colored menus. The Budget program can crash 
by improper selection at menu, but not to worry, as it is so 
easy to start over by re-setting the computer ard re-load. It 
only takes seconds and no data will be lost. 



IMSURiWCE 
tBISORB 



ttlONE 

racr. TAXES 
TO/WSTORT 



,00 500.00 




After reading this listing, you may type : LOAD "MS-TAS". When 
the program loads, use the prompts to LOAD and Print the 
tutorials in the Tasword files mentioned earlier. 

The starting address to input is 33280 for each of the files. 



INPUT the byte length of each 

ENTER <64> for the FORMAT LINE 
you will need to watch for the 
the paper for the second page. 



file as it is given above. 

LENGTH. As the data prints out 
end of the page prompt to adjust 



The "MS-TAS" utility should come in handy for other uses. I 
have always needed to be able to efficiently PEEK out MSCRIPT 
and TASWCRD code files and print them. Now we can, WITHOUT 
need to load EITHER of the softwares. 

Other programs in this disk are documented in the pages of 
TS-2068 UP-DATE. 

The Aerco FD-68 ensemble has a "movable" printer code attained 
by use of Jack Dohany's RALOADER program. As used with this set 

of programs, the code resides at 64500, and is 867 bytes. 67 
bytes at the top is reserved to HIDE vars needed in the "next" 
BASIC program, which would normally be wiped out. To use this 
code, select a BASE adr, LOAD it there, then RANDOMIZE base. 
POKE (base+4), width, and (base +5), line feed (0 or 10). 

Included in all disks are five OUTSTANDIISiG "DOSDEX" disk mgr 
programs by Bob Hartung. These are the very best Disk Manager 
programs that I have ever seen for ANY computer. Sorry, but 
the syntax is for the Oliger Safe Disk system. I'm just not 
up to converting the programs for LKDOS and FD-68. But sooner 
or later someone will do it, and the listings will be given in 
UP-DATE. It should be an interesting challange to try. 

There are three musical programs taken from the CATS club lib- 
rary and arranged so that they run forever, unless broken. 
I have a RCA jack running from the SOUND trace of my I/O port 
to the monitor sound input. I went to town one day last wedc 
and left the music going, which kinda upset the XYL. Oie even 
gets tired of such classic muzak as Chopin and Mozart 1 

Then there are several other good utilities for you to use. 
A "auto INTTIALIZATION" is in thar for the Aerco pr code. 
Just LOAD "INTT". Then there are several other suprises, fer 
example, try "TPSTL". The results of TYPSTL will endure until 
you reset the computer. 

Hey! Tell all of your TS-2068 friends about UP-DATE. We need 
to build up the subscriber base! HAVE FUN, and anticipate a lot 
of good new articles in the next UP-DATE issue. 



RMG UPDATE NEWS FOR SEPTEiMBER 1994 

yOLOME Efm ^ 

.NOTICE! POLICY CHANGE Al RMG TAKES EFFECl IMMEDIATELY! 
Effective September 1, 1994, any phone calls for assistance with 
computer related problems, whether for the TS computers or IBM clones, 
will be classed "CONSULTATION CALLS" and these will be billed out at 
$20 per hour starting with the first minute. Mininmum charge will be 
$1.00. We have been here for all of our customers at no cost to you 
except for the phone call and have given thousands of hours to further 
the use of computers. With the expertise that we have gained having 
cost us a lot over the years, it is time to recoup some of our losses. 
If we do not do this, we will have to close our phone lines and stop 
doing "business as usual". We want to continue to help you with any and 
all problems that we are capable of helping with. If we cannot help, we 
will refer you to someone who is capable of helping. That referaJ alone 
should be worth something. You would not expect to call a doctor or a 
lawyer to ask them questions without expecting to pay for their time. 
If all I have that you need is inside my head and you want to make use 
of the knowledge there, then it will be there for you, as long as I get 
paid for it. Don't get us wrong, we will still gladly accept calls for 
price information and phone orders without a charge being made for 
them. The new policy ONLY applies to "how do I do this" type calls. The 
only exception to this new policy will- be for paid-up members of COATS 
user group. 

More favorable letters have arrived regarding the book THE BEST OF THE 
PLOTTER. We are pleased that yuo are happy with our efforts. As of this 
writing, we have not shipped the disks out yet. but again, we want to 
make sure that they are as complete and "bug free" as is possible. 

As sales have not been what we would like (are they ever?), we are 
going to start. with this month's issue, to send out an entire set of 
flyer pages. We will send out CNSN-1 through CNSN-4 this month and will 
send out pages CNSN-5 through CNSN-8 next month and finish up in 
October with CNSN-9 through CNSN-12. We will be adding some very 
special SPECIAL PAGES along the way. This month we are sending a page 
of items that we found in the storeroom while doing an inventory that 
you might not have seen before or ever. Take a look. 

RENEHBEf!! mi SUPFOfiT m--k'o LONG AS M SUPPORT US! 

We are also including the TS clearance sheet again. We iiope that some 
of you will pass on these pages to others if you know someone who also 
uses a TS computer. 

KEEP WATCHJN' FOR MORE NEWS! Rod Gowen. Owner, RMG Enterprises 
14784 South Quail Grove Circle, Oregon City, OR 97045 
503/655-7484 8AM-bPM PT * FAX/ VOl CEMA 1 L .• 503/655-4 lib 24 HRS 



6 



p. s. 

I showed this card to an 
accountant friend. She looked it 
over and commented that the square 
was awfully small. Thinking more 
about it, she suggested that one 
could enlarge it on a copy machine 
if necessary! 



20 REM DICK 

30 REM pr in 
on large pri 
rizontal size 
, for a card 

40 PRINT AT 
Office" 

50 PRINT AT 
any criticism 
St rat ion 

complete 
he box and 
comments to 

60 PRINT AT 
nt" 

100 PLOT 2,2 
110 PLOT 2,2 
120 PLOT 252 
130 PLOT 252 
150 PLOT 127 
160 PLOT 127 
170 PLOT 137 
180 PLOT 137 
190 PLOT 128 
200 PLOT 138 



WAGNER 7/94 
t with USE9 program 
nter, density=0, ho 
=1, vertical size=l 
2x3 1/2 inches. 
8,6; "From The Oval 

10,3; "If you have 
of my admini 
please write 
details in t 
return your 
my office. " 
20, 15; "The Preside 

: DRAW 250,0 
: DRAW 0, 120 
,122: DRAW -250,0 
, 122: DRAW 0,-120 
,24: DRAW 10,0 
DRAW 0,8 
DRAW -10,0 
DRAW 0,-8 
DRAW 10,0 



24: 
,32: 
,32: 
,23: 
,23: DRAW 0,8 



PRINTER READY ? 

Dick F. Wagner 

There are times that a good screen 
warning of the Busy/Ready status of 
a printer is very helpful, 
particularly if a printer is shared 
between several computers. 

Larry Crawford (UpDate magazine 
10/93) has a nice program that 
includes a clever approach to this 
problem. In his article on 24-pin 
bit image graphics he used this line 
to give a flashing warning on line 
#0 of the bottom screen. 

20 IF IN 127 <> 236 THEN 
INPUT;: PRINT #0; "PUT PRINTER ON 
LINE": PAUSE 2: GO TO 20 



To explain; IN 127<>23 
the address of Port 127 
scheme of things. This 
applicable to LKDOS but 
uses 239. To check your 
the printer OFF, PRINT 
give 255 while with the 
line, PRINT IN 127 wi 
address of Port 127 for 
equipment . 



6 is simply 
in the Aerco 
address is 
my Oliger IF 
system with 
IN 127 should 
printer on 
11 give the 
the readers 



INPUT; clears the bottom two lines 
of the screen without clearing other 
lines like CLS will. 



From Tht 



ij r f 1 C t: 



I f y 0 u h a V £■ 3 r i y c r i t i c i s m 
0 f n'lM a dm i n i s t rati o n 
P I. e a £ e uj r i t e c o m p 1 e t e 
dt tails in the box and 
r £ t u r n y o u r c o mm e n t s t o 
my 0 f f i ce . 



□ 



The President 



PRINT #0; "message": PAUSE 2: GO TO 
20 is a nice way to produce a 
flashing message at the bottom of 
the screen. If IN 127 is true (not 
236) then the message flashes. If IN 
127=236 (or your address) then the 
message is skipped as it is not 
needed.